Almost every year since 1980, our city has held the Great Texas Balloon Race.
Normally, its just a weekend of high flying balloon fun and different games/races for the balloon pilots to compete in during the morning and fun and excitement for the public in the evenings. This year, next year, and 2014, the National balloon race is also being hosted here so that means a full week of flying instead of just the normal 3 days.
I was off one day during the race, so I woke Kyndall up super early that day, and we became balloon hunters! We drove over 20 miles, made 3 stops, and saw lots of balloons. She was super excited.
One of our stops was a "drop site" for the pilots. They had a target on the ground and they had a flag with their name or balloon number on it. They had to "steer" their balloon as close to the target as possible and drop their flag. Whoever got closest to the center, won. We had balloons right over our heads. They were close enough we could hear the people on board talking!
On Saturday, we headed out to the airport for the balloon glow. This is where they blow up all the balloons, keep them on the ground, and light them up. They had the typical shaped ones, but they also had some fun shaped ones. You can see Noah's Ark to the right of Kyndall, and the one on the left is a butterfly.
There was also a guy who took off in/on one. He basically attached a lawn chair and a propane tank to it, and off into the wind he went. Not sure where he landed, but he's braver than I am!
Noah's Ark
The butterfly!
We ran into Aidan! They are pretty much best buddies.
Just after dusk, all the balloons get blown up and glow. Pictures don't do it justice.
Not sure how next year will go since we'll have a 6 month old, but we do know that we'll take a stroller and a camel back for water!
